lunch with Hannah Tan

I had lunch with Hannah the other day. It's been ages since we had time to talk. Most of the time, it was just short SMS's about work.

At first we were going to go try the Seremban Char Siew in Aman Suria but since we could only meet after the place's closing time, we decided to have lunch at SS2 instead. I told her its really hard to find parking there and she said, just double park in front of the shop

When I got there, I found her car already double parked in front of her shop so I did the same thing in front of her car. Awhile later, a car started honking and the duck rice shop owner we were eating at said a car I was blocking wanted to go out. So I ran out to move the car and parked in the guy's spot instead.

After that, the shop owner again came to tell me that the MBPJ wanted to summon my car because I forgot to buy a ticket. Damn it. So I ran out to buy a ticket to put in the car. From far, I could see that they were also looking at Hannah's car and when they saw her looking out from the shop at her car, they just left after that. Damn, they came after me but left her alone? So unfair!

She said I was such a square for always following the rules. I am a square because of things just like this, I don't like to worry about getting summoned or blocking someone's car. Plus the fact my car's brand new, I didn't want anything to happen to it. Then again, she drives a car a few times more expensive then mine and she's not worried.

Anyway, it was nice to catch up with her again, I didn't realize we actually sat in that shop for 2 hours talking about work, relationships and people we know. She's such a sweet girl. I can't reveal what we talked about but the things she told me were so funny I bursted out laughing in the shop a few times. I think the shop owner gave me a few wierd stares from the other corner of the shop.

The nice thing about talking to a pretty girl is that they're easy on the eyes. It's easier to maintain eye contact when you talk with someone. That's why we put them on TV, so you maintain as much eye contact with the contents on TV.

Looking back at the lunch, I had my overdose of high cholesterol duck rice and siew yoke. That will definitely cut down my life span but the conversation definitely improved my quality of life. It's a simple trade of.

How's your day?

Recently, anytime someone asked how's my day I would say, "it's great!" or "it's good!". I read a little about the law of attraction and it says that if you keep doing that then your perception of the day will change and it would really be a good day.

So how has it worked so far? Well, it's working! I've been having some great days for the pass few days.

Like yesterday, I drove my new Proton Saga car to Ipoh. I told myself it's going to be a good day and it was because I had a lot of fun testing it on the highway.

The car handled really well on the highway. I was driving between 120 to 140. The car was very stable and the fuel efficiency on the highway was 11KM/L. I think it could be better but at least it was fun.

On the way back, it rained really heavily. I didn't realize it but I was doing 120KM/H in the heavy rain. That means the tyres and the car's handling was pretty good too.

So how was my day today? Another pretty awsome day!

I got two customer service representatives call me to check on their service. The first was from Samsung and they wanted to know if my TV was ok after the technician repaired it. They also wanted to know how long I waited. If I was charged for anything and if I had any comments. I said everthing was fine but I was worried this might happen again because it sounded like an engineering design flaw from what the technician told me. They said they will look into it. Anyway, I'm glad they callled. I was already happy with samsung's service.

The other call was from proton to ask how was the car. I said the fuel efficiency was quite bad (7KM/L in city driving and 11KM/L highway driving). Also the key they gave me, the plastic cover was cracked. I think they screwed in the tightening screw too tight and it cracked the casing.

I also made an appointment with them for my first 1000km servicing. They asked me how was the salesman that served me. I said I was very happy with the service provided so far.

Now that I think about it, I heard a lot of horror stories previously about proton and their poor customer service and product quality. I have to say so far my experience has been pretty good so far. Other than the fuel efficiency problem and the cracked key, proton has been really good to me.

Not sure if my optimistic view on life is my good reviews on Samsung and Proton so far but at least I'm happy!




-- Post From My iPhone

Modern fears

First, we feared the terrorists. We were afraid of getting bombed when we when out. We were afraid of going to tall buildings and having a plane crash into it. We couldn't open our mails as we feared someone will mail us death.

Then came the fear of flying, we were afraid to get bombed in the air.

Then there was the government in turmoil. We were afraid and also angry at the government. We wanted change... and we had our change but we're afraid of the untested now.

After that, the economy crashed and we feared loosing our financial security. We were afraid of losing our jobs and savings.

Now we fear for our health. We wear mask and avoid public places. We view with suspicion anyone who has a cough. We stay at home and watch the news as the death toll climbs everyday. It never decreases... it just goes up and up. When will they stop counting?

We have too much fear.

Steady yourself I say!

Live life as you should! Take in your fears but do not forget you have a life to live.

D not fear for there is nothing to fear but fear itself!

TV Ghost exorcised!

The Samsung technician came to perform an exorcism on my TV today.

Previously, the TV was changing volume and channels on its own. I called Samsung to come and have a look at it as it was still under warranty. They said they provided on-site repairs which was good because it would have been a bitch to carry it to their service center. I would have needed 2 persons to do that.

At first I was worried about the warranty period and all that, but in the end, it all turned out well. The technician just took a look at the serial number and he could tell it was manufactured in November. I told him I purchased it in March. So at least I didn't have to give a lengthy explanation.

He changed both the control panel and main board. At first he suspected it was the control panel board and after changing that, it was still acting wierd, so in the end he changed the main board also. He said this was the second Samsung LCD he's seen with the same problem.

The technician was quite friendly and he explained quite a lot to me on how the TV works.

I also got him to take a look at a Samsung DVD player I bought for RM99. It has no warranty and it only worked for a week after buying it. I had bought it for my nephew to play his cartoons but it died after a few days. He said he'll check how much it is to repair it. He added if it was more than RM30 to repair, it's probably not worth it. Better of buying a new one.

So I got my TV repaired for free, with on-site service too. I'm impressed with Samsung's customer service. When I initially called them and gave them my name and phone number, they knew who I was already. I had previously registered a few Samsung products online and they had me on their database already so that saved me the problem of a long explanation. Their service response time was also 2 days, so better than I expected.

At the end of the service, the technician updated on his Samsung PDA what were the parts that he changed and the data was send to Korea. Cool. They keep track of all the problems. Hopefully, they improve on the manufacturing process for the TV.

Now if I buy another product, I'll make sure it's a Samsung!

(this blog post wasn't paid for by Samsung)

Haunted TV

I woke up really early this morning to take a piss. As I was walking to the toilet, I saw that the TV was on, it was just white snow. I thought maybe my wife had left it on before she when to bed last night. After I came out of the toilet, I took the remote and turned of the TV. As I was walking back to the bedroom, the TV turned on by itself and started cycling through the channels on its own!

I took the remote and pressed the power button to turn it of again... and again it came back on. I then realized that the button for the channel down must be depressed. I took all the batteries out from the remote controls (yeah, I have 3 remotes). The channel was still still cycling down on its own. The normal TV channels don't have any signals because I use Astro and that come through on a AV input. So from channel 1-100 is just white snow.

Damn, that means there's something wrong with the channel down button on the TV control panel. Nothing I could do about it then. The only way I could turn of the TV was by turning of the main power.

If it wasn't in the morning, it would have been quite freaky to have the TV come to life on its own.

My biggest problem now is that I can't find the damn warranty. The reason for this is why I have 3 remotes. I bought this TV from my wife's friend's warehouse sale. Her family sells used Samsung products. I got another remote since I also wanted to control the TV from my dining table. I also got a Samsung DVD player, so that's why I have 3 remotes that can control the TV.

I found one warranty card but I'm not sure if its the TV's warranty card or the DVD's warranty card. I registered my product online at the Samsung website online and it accepted it. Maybe their serial numbers on the warranty card is not linked to any particular products. I then made an appointment for their technician to come over. Now I'm keeping my fingers crossed and I hope the they call me back to confirm the appointment to repair the TV.

That's the nice thing about Samsung, they have on-site servicing for LCD TV's bigger than 30 inch. I guess they realized it was too heavy for a customer to carry to their service center. I just hope their techncians bring all the right spare parts. I can just imagine a Samsung service van driving around with a bunch of odd spare parts, enough to build a TV, fridge or washing machine.

My wife's complaining now she's got no TV to watch. Personally, it really doesn't affect me that much. I just watch a few DVD's once awhile and maybe the news or CSI on Astro. Other than that, my wife is the one who watches the most TV.

Me, I'm on my notebook most of the time in my study room, while she's outside in the living room. This way we both have our own personal space.

searching for a host(s)

I used to think (this was a long time ago) it would be a really good pick up line to see a hot chick and walk up to her and say, "hi, you're very good looking. I'm a TV Producer and I would like you to come for an audition".

My talent department actually gave me a stack of business cards where I write my name and give it to the potential talent to make an appoinment.

That of course was years ago. I haven't stopped anyone to do that although once I was in an Air Asia flight with a colleague and he stopped the stewardess on the way out of the plane to compliment how nice her voice was when she was doing her announcement. He said she has a nice voice and should consider doing voice-overs. As we left the plane, I could hear all the girls giggling and complimenting her. I think that made her day.

I haven't actually stopped random strangers to see if they're interested in hosting. I don't go to clubs or even anywhere 'cool'. Most of the time, I'm at shopping malls if you consider that cool. I have written to a few that I've seen in social networking websites. That's about it.

Now, I let my talent department do the searching. I rather the talent goes to them rather then I personally go searching. I only do that when I feel they're not searching in the right place.

Well, now I'm searching for new talent and I have to visualize where would my ideal talent hang out. I'll talk to my management to see if I can get the green light to do my own search. This should be interesting.

New Car

Its been a week now I've been driving my new Proton Saga. The only thing that is still bothering me is the smell of plastic. Most people like it, that 'new car' smell. I don't. I'm pretty allergic to any non-organic smells. Like plastics, chemicals and also cigarettes.

I drive around with the window down but I'm afraid I'll get rob when I'm at the traffic light or get hit by stones that other cars run over (end up like one of those wierd Final Destination deaths). So when I drive, the window is down and when I approach a traffic light to stop, I start winding up the window again.

I think the smell is partly because of this steering wheel grip I bought. It's giving of a wierd PVC smell when the car is hot. Time to dump that one.

What the car need is some organic smell like cloves and other spices. I think I'll drop by the supermarket near my place and buy some. Masking the smell still doesn't get rid of the plastic smell though.

What not to do at an audition.

Today, I sat in at an audition my HR department organized. It was a few shortlisted candidates that send in their resumes. Over the next few weeks, they'll be calling in people that wrote in.

Like I said before, usually if you have it, I can tell right away. It's not so much the looks, but the presentation style, voice and also most importantly, attitude and confidence.

From all the people that I've seen in auditions I can say what are the things you ought not to do:

1. Don't say you want to be successful in live. Be specific. When ever I ask them what do they want to do be successful in, they say "what ever I do". To me, I hear "I don't know what I want to do" which means you shouldn't be here.

2. Speak softly. If you're at an audition, speak loudly and clearly. Command attention! You want people to watch you but if you meakly, people tune out.

3. Speak in rojak. Be very fluently in the language you're auditioning in. I've seen a few who came in who can't even speak fluently their first language.

4. Dress sexily. I've seen a few ladies who were either trying to show of a cleavage they didn't have or showing too much. When they opened their mouth, it wasn't impressive but we remembered the cleavage. Know who you're auditioning for. If they're conservative, dress conservative.

New car

I got my new car today. It's the new proton saga. After much pestering from everyone, I finally got a car. I'm not really into cars. To me, cars are just an utility. I'm more into gadgets and PC's.

Anyway, the car's okay. Instead of filling it up with the normal Shell Petrol (green), I used the Shell V-Power (the red one). The car's pickup is way too powerful now. I'm not sure if its the car of because of the petrol. I hope it's the petrol, because when I test drove the car the first time at the showroom, it didn't pick up with a kick like how it is now. The one in the show room was quite smooth. It kind of reminds me of the old car I drove, the Nissan Sunny which was a manual.

For a month plus now I've been driving my mother's Wira. I had to park the old Nissan Sunny at my house and borrow the Wira because the Nissan Sunny just had too much problems. The suspensions were making noises; the engine was leaking oil and other problems. That was the main reason I decided to trade it in for the government's RM5,000 rebate for old cars. It looks like a good car from the outside but it wasn't economical to repair anymore.

Though I have to say, compared to the wira, the Nissan Sunny was much more fuel economical. For 40 litres of petrol, I got about 450KM. For the Wira, I only got 350KM. Now all this is just city driving. I think it's mostly to do with the Wira's auto transmission which wasn't very fuel economical.

Last night when I came to check on the old car, I found out the engine oil leak was so bad the car could have caught fire. It was leaking oil on to the exhaust and the oil was smoking. Luckily, my mother knew a mechanic and we called him over to have a look. He actually offered to buy the car from me for his daugther to use. I told him it was too late since I've already signed the papers with Proton. It would be nice actually to see this car be of service to someone else. Ironically, this was the same mechanic that my mother when with when she bought and tested the car.

The mechanic came in the morning to take the car to his workshop which was near my house to spray some sealant to stop the leak. My instructions to him was specific, fix it so I can drive to the proton dealership, as they were going to scap the car no need to do any extensive repairs. My mother's neighbour who drove the same car took some of the other parts of the car, like the hubcabs.

As I drove the car to the proton dealer this morning, I was really worried that the car would break down. However, it made it in one piece. While driving it, I almost forgot what fun it was to drive an old manual car. The pickup for the Nissan Sunny is pretty good, especially from 1st to 2nd and to 3rd gear. Somehow, driving an old manual like this car always made me feel like a rally driver.

I was seriously considering getting the manual version of the proton saga but my wife talked me out of it. This car is going to be with me for at least another 10 years and by then I probably won't have the energy to drive a manual anymore. So, I thought I better drive an auto from now on.

I'll miss driving manual... but I'm already having fun driving this new Saga. The pickup and handling is fantastic. I can take corners a lot faster then I used to do with the Sunny. It didn't feel like the car was going to turn over. The seat is higher too, just like in the Sunny.

The only thing that really bugs me is that the car doesn't have a USB port for MP3 playback on the radio. In my old Sunny, I had a radio that I bought with a USB port. I took the radio out and I'm going to put it in my wife's car. I can't change the radio that came with the Saga because there's a 5 year warranty so I got to stick with it. I'll probably consider one of those MP3 players that transmit over the FM frequency.

It would be nice if actually could find a way to integrate the radio with my Iphone. The wira I was driving had a mini stereo jack so I hooked up my Iphone to it and I've been listening to the tunes on it. However, I think I'm going to try listening to the radio for now just to see what I've been missing.

I've transferred some of the old stuff to the new car, like my university alumni sticker. It's old and worn out but it's the only one I have. I should write to my university and see if they can mail me a new one. It's free publicity for them anyway.

While my wife was away...

My wife just got back today from her short holiday overseas with her friends. So the past few days I've been staying alone in the apartment. I almost forgot what it was alike to stay alone. I actually got creeped out on the first night. I was too afraid to sleep alone. I stayed up until I was really tired and then when to bed. That way, I didn't have to think of all the scarry stuff that might happen... like I don't know... some monster coming out of my toilet bowl. Damn, I have an over imaginative mind.

Anyway, it did give me time to experiment with other things normally I would not have been able to do if my wife was around. For one, I've been playing around with this wireless camera I got that I have been using as a CCTV. The reception is pretty bad from the study room so for the past few days when the wife was away I attached a really long RCA cable to it and put the receiver in the living room. I was right, the reception was so much better. I think I might invest in a better wireless camera, I think there's a bluetooth version out there.

I've also got to watch my DVD's on the TV. My wife controls the TV now. I get the study room. In my study room, the monitor isn't that great on the desktop PC but I have 5.1 surround sound. In my living room, I have a large flat screen TV but only 2.1 speaker system. Only if I can combine the two... should try that out the next time.

Anyway, I did get to watch Watchmen on DVD. Now that was an awsome movie. I like the ending. The superheroes were kind of cheesy since they were from the 80's. I think the one character I like best was Rorschach. He reminded me a bit of Punisher because he didn't have any superpowers. In fact, most of the heroes in the Watchmen didn't have powers except for Dr Manhattan... now that guy was almost a God, too much powers. Rorschach was cool because of his extreme morality.

The soundtrack for the movie was pretty good too, It had some tunes from the 60's and 80's. Haven't heard most of them in awhile. After the movie, I listened back to some of the tunes again on my PC.

looking for talent

Lately, I've been on the hunt for more talent again to add to my production team. I still need some reporters (and hosts). As it's an english business program, finding someone who speaks english and have the right skills is not easy.

First of all, the resumes I've been getting from my HR department aren't very promising. I first filter the stack for those who can speak English and that really narrows it down. I can sort of tell right away from their cover letter. Most are cut and paste type. If you can't even write an original cover letter, you're not going to cut it as a journalist.

Then the next filter is academic background. Since it's a business program, I'm looking for someone with an accounting, finance, or business degree... and mind you, I say degree, not a diploma.

After all this is shortlisted, then it goes to the interview stage. At this stage, I can pretty much tell from the first minute of the interview if I want the person or not already. The interviews I do are designed to see how the candidates do well under stress and also how they handle real life situations they will be facing on the job.

The last interview I did, we asked the candidates "If you could interview the finance minister, what would you ask him?". I think most of them mumbled a feeble question but those who were confident knew what they wanted to ask... though some questions were a little too daring for Malaysian standards. I like someone with guts, who are not afraid to speak their mind.

I think the talent pool for english speaking Broadcast Journalist in Malaysia is very small. I wonder what happened to all the kids who graduate every year with a mass communication degree. Maybe they all go into advertising, PR or print journalism. Those who do go overseas to do broadcast journalism either don't come back or do something totally different from their first degree.

My degree isn't broadcast journalism either, it's TV Production but at least I'm doing what I studied.

Suddenly I feel like Optimus Prime at the end of the Transformer 1 movie where he's sending a message out to the stars asking for other autobots to join him. Any broadcast journalism graduates interested to join my team?

You can be a Decepticon too.

Pear & pineapple

A funny conversation this morning during a meeting I attended.

X: Hey, is that a new Iphone?
Y: Yeah, I got it in Singapore. Malaysia very expensive. Over there, much less.
X: (picks up the phone and looks at it) Hrm, this doesn't look like an Iphone.
Me: (takes Iphone and look at it) Hey, this is not an Iphone. It's a China clone.
Y: It is an Iphone, how you know its a clone?
Me: Iphone has an Apple logo on the back, yours doesn't. Plus your USB port is on top of the phone, Iphone's USB port is at the bottom. (I show her my Iphone). Your phone is not an Apple lar, it's a pear. Looks like an Apple, but it's not, it's a pear.
X: More like a pineapple.

hahahaha.

Back in the saddle again

A few months ago, my boss informed me that I would have to produce a new business program. At first, I was quite hesitant to do a business program again as I haven't done one in a long time and I have lost touch of the business world. Plus the fact that I would have preferred to do a lifestyle program. In fact, business programs are very specialized and only those with an interest in it would go into broadcasting specifically to just do business and financial programs. As this was a directive from my company, I had to do it.

So a few months down the road, it has been a few episodes into the season already. Things have almost stabilized. The hardest part about any program is getting things started. The hardest part is actually planning the editorial direction of the program and meeting up with the sponsors. Everyone has high expectations and it's important to explain to them early on what are the limitations.

Then there's the creative direction. Meeting the designers to build the set, program montage and the logo. Sometimes too many cooks spoils the soup and that's what happens every time when it comes to a creative progress. In the end, I had to push things through to get things done.

Preparing a team is also hard. The hardest is finding a good host. A few names were tossed around in the early part and all of the candidates have their pros and cons. In the end, I was lucky enough to convince my current host to take up the challenge to do it. It's important to have good chemistry with the host, especially during a live program. A host has to think in the same wavelength as the producer in terms of what questions to ask a guest.

The good thing about this program is that at least I'm now producing a program on my own again. It's like getting to captain your own ship again. Since I'm a Star Trek fan, I always see each program as a star ship and this program won't be a huge galaxy class ship like the Enterprise (that would be Buletin Utama, the main news program). My program would probably be equivalent to... a shuttle craft? hehehe. Hey, at least they call me producer again!

I've also been talking to the business community again. It's always nice to get the news straight from the source and to see uncensored version of the news. When I was doing a woman's talk show, I used to talk to NGO's and politicians and they used to tell me the challenges they faced. Most of it couldn't be aired. It's the same with the business community, they love to talk, but not officially on the record.

Maybe it's just the Malaysian culture. Everyone's afraid to stick their neck out to say something event though everyone else is thinking of it. Its just too risky.

Since my program is on Sunday night, my day offs are Monday and Tuesday now. At first I was thinking there goes my weekend but I find that working on a weekend is works out fine for me. On Mondays and Tuesdays I get to go out do my errands while everyone else is at work. It helps that I can go to the bank during banking hours.

The down side is I don't get to attend any social events on Sunday. Although I only start work at 4PM on Sunday, I prefer to sleep in on Sunday morning because I have to work until very late in the evening.

USB DVR and youtube ban in china.

Recently, I bought a USB DVR 4 channel recorder. It was a clear-logic brand. I got it from a dealer on lelong.com.my.

I've been looking for a DVR for some time to replace this old PCI DVR card I have. It only runs on Windows XP and my desktop is already running Vista on it. Plus, my desktop only has PCI slots and both of them are used already, for my soundcard and firewire slots.

Anyway, back to the USB DVR device, one of the features advertised is that it could record motion and auto upload it into youtube for you to watch. It also allowed auto upload of pictures to Picasa. I thought now that would be cool, I can watch stuff on my Iphone on youtube and picasa in real time.

I installed the software that came with it and found that the youtube function didn't work most of the time. Also, the program kept crashing everytime I tried to log it into picasa.

I e-mailed clear-logic for customer support, A 'Coco' were nice enough to write me back the next day to ask me to chat with her in MSN to get the new software.

She said in the new software update, it won't work with youtube anymore but it fixes the picasa problem. I asked her what happened to the youtube support since that was the major decision to buy it. She said, youtube has been banned in China, and since they're based in Shenzhen, they could not provide any customer support for their customers. Damn.

Looks like China's censorship is affecting me also. This clear-logic is brilliant in how they figured out a cheap way to offer full DVR services for a cheap product. They rely heavily on Google to do that.

The one I like best is how they get google calendar to send free sms to me everytime a motion is detected. It creates an event in google calendar and then google calendar sends a reminder by sms to me. I didn't even know google calendar sends out free sms reminders for events.

Anyway, I'll write a more extensive review of this DVR device futher once I've done more testing on it.

in this life time.

I've been thinking and reflecting on what I want in life... again. Sometimes, on a quiet night my mind drifts to thoughts about what I want to do in this life.

First of all, you have to understand what I believe in. I'm a Buddhist in heart. One of the hardest things for me to believe in Buddhism is reincarnation. If Buddha is right, that we are to reincarnate infinite times until we can escape through nirvana, until then we're to re-live many life times.

So if I am to reincarnate, what do I want to do in this life time? What would make it worth while? I don't remember my previous life times so I have no measure of what has been done or experiences I lack of.

I sit and ponder... and now I am hungry.

Who to ask?

Today, I was doing my editing in the Non-Linear Editing room and the producer who was using the room next door came to sit in my room out of boredom.

As I was sitting there, his trainee pops his head through the door and this the was conversation between the two of them:

Trainee: Where did you want me to go?
Producer: Go to Corporate Communications Department and get some sounvenirs for the trip we're going on.
Trainee: (blank look on the face). Where is it?
Producer: It's on the fourth floor, south wing. We're in the north wing right now.
Trainee: (still blank look on the face)

By this time, I chipped in and said, "It's next to the HR department".
Producer: Just go to the fourth floor and ask anyone for directions.
Trainee: Ask who?

both me and the producer then shouted and answered at the same time: Ask anyone there lar!
Me: When you get there, just ask the first person you see where is corporate comm!

Trainee: Erm... I meant, who to ask at Corporate Comm for the souvenirs?
Producer: oh, ask X for it.

hahaha. Lucky, both of us didn't give the space cadet a long lecture on using his brain. Like robot, must give precise instructions otherwise it won't operate properly.

Will Ferrell cameo role in Michael Jackson's music video "The Way You Make Me Feel"

I was looking at the full version of Michael Jackson's full length version of "The Way You Make Me Feel". The video was shot in 1987. The long version of the music video is hardly every played, so when I saw it on youtube I saw something I don't most people realize.

24 seconds into the video, there's actually a very short scene of young Will Ferrell playing a punk. He yells "Don't touch my head" in it briefly. I can't verify if it was him but from the voice, height and facial features, it sure looks like him.

Now in 1987, he was basically a nobody. I think this was even before he was a regular in Saturday Night LiveWho would have thought eh?

Check out the video below to see it for yourself at this youtube site here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJrUa-zKeIc

I can't post the video here myself because of copyrights reasons.

The short version that is played edits out the early part with him in it so that is why most people would not have seen it.

Now I wonder how many more famous people were in MJ's music video.

Sports day

The primary school next to my apartment having sports day. I can hear them cheering "merah! Merah!" and "biru! Biru!".

Such fun times. I'm rooting for biru!

-- Post From My iPhone

Avante humidifier

I got this humidifier for RM228 at Home Fix at One Utama. It was the mid-range one. The high end one had a digital control with a room humidity sensor and control.

I figure if I start feeling uncomfortable I'll just turn it down. No need for the sensor. Right now I have it turned on full.



Right now I have it setup on a high position above my shelfs. I'll need a new extension cord so that I don't trip on the wire.

You can't really see it in the picture but the mist it generates is really cool. It falls down and covers the room.

-- Post From My iPhone

Flu

I'm down with the flu again. At first I was wondering if it was Influenza A H1N1 (I don't call it the "selsema babi") but luckily the doctor said there's no fever... just sore throat and running nose.

When to the doctor the second time again today to get antibiotics. When I saw her yesterday, I said I'll be back if it got worst and it did. Knowing myself, my running nose always leads to a bad sore troat. When I wake up in the morning, the back of my throat really hurts because all the phlegm is dried up.

I've been drinking a lot of water but the side-effect of that is that I keep going to the toilet every 20-30 minutes. I have a small bladder I think. Now I know what pregnant ladies go through. I can hardly sleep at night because I keep going to the toilet. It's not easy to aim when you're half asleep!

I when to One Utama to buy a dehumidifier. I find that my room gets really dry when the airconditioning is on. I can't really tell the difference yet with it on. The air in my study does feel a little 'thicker'. Hopefully, this would help with my sore throat.

Anyway, the 'night' flu medication is supposed to make me feel drowsy. Took it more than an hour ago and finally I'm feel sleepy. Time to hit the sack!

Wrong Number

When I first moved into my apartment, I was considering what type of internet connection I was going to get. At first, I got Celcom wireless broadband but that turned out to be a really bad idea. It turns out that Maxis and Celcom's wireless broadband do very badly in the Klang Valley, too many users.

I remember calling Celcom to complain and they said they will add more capacity in my area but I have to wait 3 months, I then asked them why should I pay 3 months for a service I'm not getting? They said, it's actually a mobile device and it wasn't meant to be used in only one place. So I cancelled it right away.

In the end, I when back to Streamyx. It turns out Streamyx is still the most stable and fastest I've tested.

Now, with my Streamyx, I also had to apply for a phone line. Since my wife and I both use handphones, we both don't use a fixed line anymore. The streamyx customer service representative at their shop said I could pick a number so I looked through it.

I picked a number with a few repeating numbers so it's easy to remember. I didn't tell anyone except our families the phone number since I figured no one will ever call me on the fixed line. A few days after installing the line, the phone started ringging and I started getting calls from Telekom staff who kept asking me if wanted to register Streamyx. The customer service rep did warn me about "people" calling to ask but I didn't realize it was going to be like 3-4 times a day.

In the end, it did stop but I now get calls wrong number calls. If the house phone rings, it's most certainly a wrong number. I think picking a nice number has its drawbacks, I think my number must be similar to other people's office number because I keep getting people calling asking for strangers.

Previously, in my old house, I had a land line in my room too for the Streamyx. I think the number was similar to a sundry shop near my house so people kept calling the phone asking for sundry goods to be delivered to them. Once, the phone rang and I got fed up and I just picked it up and hang it up again. The second time it rang, I picked it up and an old lady screamed "why you keep hanging up? I want to order my groceries!".

I want to unplug the phone but I have to keep it for emergencies. Sometimes the Maxis reception in my study room is bad, so my wife calls the house phone to get me.

Guntron

I've been following a new comic strip online, The Perry Bible Fellowship. I know, it sounds wierd but it's nothing to with Christianity.


It's got some pretty dark humour which is my favourite. This is my favourite panel so far. Click on it to open it to see it clearer, the second panel is a bit small.

Took me a split second to figure out the ending and I had to go back to the second panel before I finally got it. Shit, I was laughing for a minute there. Funny as hell.

Here's another one... sort of ties in to the Transformer sequel coming out.

This is Melbourne Part 04

Another panorama picture from Melbourne. Wonderful city. I love how they like to try new architectural designs. Very interesting.

The layout of the city and their mass transportation is very good too. A Sim City model I say.

This is Melbourne Part 03

Finally got my camera fixed. I dropped it in Melbourne. Cost me over RM400 to fix it. I dropped it on the lens and it pushed the telescope lens out of alignment.

So I finally downloaded all my panorama pictures. That's my favourite thing to do with my camera and photoshop. I love seeing how photoshop puts together the panorama pictures perfectly everything. The above picture was taken at Sovereign Hill, Balarat, near Melbourne, Australia. In the background, is my wife, her grand-uncle and my mother-in-law.

The place is one of those tourist places you probably only go once and you had enough of it. It's basically an old mining camp that they've turned into a tourist attraction. By the way, a few minutes after I took this picture was when I dropped the camera.

This is melbourne 02

We took Airasia X. The flight was 7 hours plus and I have to say it was really uncomfortable. The reason for that was because of the seat. It was really hard to recline them and we had to sleep slouching most of the time.

Anyway, the food was OK. Check out the Nasi lemak.






We got to the airport at Melbourne almost close to 11:30pm. Getting through Customs was ok, except that they wanted to fine my wife for trying to bring in the Kit Kat bar in the picture above and without declaring it (Australia requires all visitors to declare all dairy).

Right away I was quite impressed with the level of technology they have here. Just take this hand dryer I saw I'm their toilet, it says it can dry your hands in 10 secs and it really did! It's got huge fans in it and I could feel the air pushing the water of my hands.







Ok, so it doesn't take a lot to impress me. More in the next post.

-- Post From My iPhone

This is Melbourne Part 01

It's been a long time since I when to a cold place. The only cold place I go to these day is my editing room, which I keep at 20C. So I was quite excited about going to Melbourne with my wife and mother-in-law for a holiday.

We had bought our ticket early as Air Asia was having a sale, and we were lucky enough to get discounted hotels. Accor was having a global sale so we got the rooms really cheap.

I'll post more pictures later. Right now, I'm trying to blog from the iPhone with a new blogging software. Leaving you with a picture of a friend we made there.

Music

I just bought Raising Sand, a collaboration between Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. It's the album that won album of the year at the Grammy award. I've always been a fan of Alison Krauss and the first time I heard of the album was when it won the award. I searched the net and found the song Please Read The Letter. The first time I heard that song, I just knew I had to get the album.


Alison has such a haunting sound to her voice, add Robert Plant into it and you have an amazingly haunting album.

Looking back, I don't think I buy many albums. The last one I bought was a Julie London compilation which I listen too once awhile in the apartment when nobody's in on a lazy day. It's really soothing to listen to her sing. My favourite song by her is Cry Me A River. It's a sad song but I just love how she sings it. It's the album I listen too if I want to take a nap on the sofa.

I used to download all the latest hits instead of listening to the radio. I think since two years ago, I stopped doing that. I think I stopped listening to the radio at one point and lost all interest in the new music coming out. It's not that I didn't like the music coming out anymore, its just that I never had the time to listen to the radio anymore so I never knew what were the new music coming out that I might like. When I do listen to the radio when I drive, I listen to stations that have more news content like Radio Bernama or BFM which is a business/talk show station. The music that they do play aren't the latest but its music that I like.

I also listen to audio lectures that I have downloaded in my car. I put it in my thumb drive and play it from my car stereo's USB jack. I have a series of lectures on Buddhism and I only listen to it when no one else is in the car. Most people don't get it, for me I find it quite relaxing to listen to the professor lecturing. For long distance drives, it's perfect.

I tried downloading the latest top 20 hits a few days ago. Most of the songs are nice, but I think I'll still stick to the oldies and more mellow folk and country music. Must be getting old already!

Knowing the future

Spoiler for Knowing and Next below:

I watched Knowing earlier this evening. It's a science fiction film starring Nicholas Cage. It was either this or watching The International. I choose Nicholas Cage because of the 'knowing the future' theme.

In Nicholas Cage's previous movie, Next he can see into the future a few minutes before it happens, hence he can change it just before it happens. Its got a pretty dumb ending. He 'dies' but then wakes up and he's back at the middle of the movie again where he's just lying on his bed playing out all the possibilities before he got out of bed. How dumb is that? The movie ends without even the bad guys getting caught. I felt cheated, like there was supposed to be a sequel but it never happened.

Anyway, I wanted to know what happened at the end of Knowing. From the trailer, I sort of figured it out. Nicholas Cage has a series of numbers that predict the future. In the end, turns out aliens have been sending selected people warnings that the world is about to end. In the finale, the aliens takes his son away but won't let him follow as he wasn't one of the 'chosen one'. Too bad Nicholas, I guess nobody wants you. So he dies in the end when a huge solar flare kills everyone on earth.

Now I feel satisfied that he finally died in the end of a movie. He may have cheated me of a death in Next but he made up for it in Knowning. I did like the theme and the implied message in the end of the movie Knowing. The aliens in the ending are translucent humanoid beings. As they fly up to their spaceship, they have translucent angel wings. They drop the kids of on a strange planet with almost similar earth like atmosphere and ecology, except that it has two moons. In the last scene, the children run towards a large pale white tree in the open of a grassland. This tree is supposed to represent The Tree of Life from the bible.

So in the end, there are a lot of references that aliens are actually God and Angels were aliens interacting with humans. In the end, they came to save selected humans to start over again on another planet. Sort of like conservationists. "oh, look at those poor humans! The solar flare will kill them, lets save some of them. It was such fun watching them on earth".

The village idiot

For the pass few days, I don't know why but I've been thinking about this village idiot that I accidentally interviewed.

When I was in Terengganu shooting our documentary, we have heard of a chinese temple that was build on the banks of a river, the same spot where legends have it that Admiral Cheng Ho stopped to look for fresh water. It was during Cheng Ho's fourth trip that he sailed up the Terengganu river looking for fresh water. He couldn't proceed up river anymore as his path was blocked by a rapid.

We only knew its general location and we had to stop people on the street to ask for directions. After driving of the main road into some village, we came to the banks of a river and found the temple. In front of it was a river with a rapid. It was quiet and serene. The small temple was more like a shrine. It was locked up and no one was around.

So there I stood in the shade of a tree looking at the rapids. There was a jetty where villagers took water taxis to the main town down stream. I stood there watching passengers getting on and of while enjoying the peace of the surroundings. I had come a long way from KL all the way to this small tiny village called Kampung Jeram. It felt surreal.

I looked around to see if there was anyone we could interview about this temple, and just as I looked down the small street we were standing on, I saw a man riding a bicycle. It was actually a kid's chopper. It looked like it was one size too small for the guy ridding it. He was wearing a ragged t-shirt and he had a shaved head. He stopped and asked us what we were doing. We told him we were filming a documentary and wanted to interview someone who could tell us the history of the temple.

He offered himself saying that knew the history of the place. So we sat him down by the rocks of the rapid and he started to talk. While I was doing the interview, I could see that by then a few other villagers have gathered around. After the interview was done, He when of to get something. The other crew came back from talking to the other villagers. They said the guy we interviewed wasn't 'right'.

At that point, I realized we had interviewed the village idiot and he gave us the version of his history of the village. No wonder the guy was going around in a chopper. He did mention he used to work in KL but couldn't stand the stress and moved back to his village and was now jobless. Damn it. I should have seen the sign.

The other villagers mentioned that the best person to talk too was the former village chief. Just then, the village idiot came back on his bicycle. We asked him to take us to the former village chief. So we followed him from our van while he rode in front of us.

The ex-village chief was quite gracious enough to talk to us. The story he told us was slightly different from what the village idiot told us. There was a lot more 'additional' stuff that the village idiot had told us which I began to doubt about it's authencity.

In the end, when I finally reached the office and started editing. I didn't use any of the interviews with the village idiot. I still have his phone number. He didn't have a hand phone, only a home phone.

In fact, I think this was the second village idiot we talked too in Terengganu. While we were looking for another place, we stopped to ask for directions. There was a small warong selling drinks and a few customers sitting in it. My producer walked up to the first customer to ask for directions. The guy just mumbled and we couldn't understand a word he was saying. Finally the shop owner came forward and took the guy by the shoulders and moved him aside. He said that the person we were just talking too "wasn't right". Damn of all the customers in the shop, we picked the one who wasn't right.

Khairy?

Man, looks like Khairy won by a slim majority. It was a good fight Muhkriz. Looks like in the end UMNO youth wants Khairy, for all the bad publicity that he got, he could still win then over.

Fine. If that's what they want.

Rafidah is out!

Rafidah is out! Wohoo!

Just watched it live on TV the announcement of Sharizat winning the ketua wanita UMNO post. I always knew Sharizat had it in her to lead. Way to go lady!

Broken TV

Good Bye old TV. You served me well. Sorry you to see you go in such an awful way. I was hoping you would last longer but alas, it was just wishful thinking.

A few days ago, I was moving my TV around on the old TV cart. It had a high centre of gravity and the cart was really light. The TV must have been about 50KG. The floor tiles wasn't even and eventually it hit a bump and the TV fell face down onto the floor. For a split second, I thought of stopping it with my knee as I was standing in front of it. However, I decided it was either a broken knee or a broken TV so I let it fall to the floor.

I could hear the glass shatter into many small pieces. As I stood there looking down at the back of the TV, I could still hear the glass shattering and cracking, the small pieces slowly being pulled by gravity to the bottom. I dreaded putting it back up right, afraid to see what had happened to the front.

After about 30 seconds, I finally lifted it up right and found that the front screen had cracked. The inside tube must have shattered into many small pieces by now. I lifted it up and put it on another lower trolley and pushed it into the store room, waiting for the right time to trow it away. There, it sit in the morgue awaiting its funeral.

The day finally came when I had a colleague over at the apartment. We both pushed it down to the refuse chamber and hoisted it to the side. I remember there was a slight drizzle and the sky was dark. In the rain, I said good bye to this dear old TV of mine. At least it was shaded.

All that remains is the two remote control I have from the TV. Only momentos left of a memory.

Well, at least I already have a new TV I bought just before the death of the old one!

Buddha says all component things will not last. How right he is. Don't hold on to things, let go and you will suffer less.

I wonder

Sometimes I wonder if we ever do have free will. Am I just a raft drifting along in a river of circumstances with no choice where I am headed to?

Is there only destiny or do we actually have free will? Are the choices we make in life just an illusion?

I ponder these questions as I write this. For every action there is an opposite reaction. My current actions is result of the actions of others. How can I change this and finally reach nirvana?

Countless reincarnations before me, how many more after me? When will it finally all end?

The end to all end, nirvana.

Here be pirates

The piracy problems of the coast of Somalia is going to make for a lot of materials for movie producers and novelists. Just take for instance the story from the Star newspaper below:

Anxious
moment for heli crew

LUMUT: Confronted by pirates off the
Somalia coast was a nerve-wrecking moment for our navy boys.

Commander
Sazalee Shoib, commander of the Super Lynx helicopter unit, was watching over
the MISC container vessel Bunga Mas Enam which had stalled due to mechanical
problems in November last year.

Below, two skiffs (speedboats) filled
with the pirates were already near the vessel with six other skiffs rushing to
the scene.

Commander Sazalee said there was a possibility that the
pirates carried rocket launchers and other weapons.

So he kept a safe
distance but close enough to show the pirates that he meant business.

“Under the rules of engagement, we are not allowed to fire unless fired
upon first,” said Commander Sazalee when met at the naval base here yesterday.

The pirates, probably considering their options, decided not to do
anything.

After an hour, they retreated upon seeing the warship KD
Mahawangsa.

The KD Mahawangsa had sailed to the Gulf of Aden on Sept 7
last year to escort merchant ships plying the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden.

One of its mission was to escort the Bunga Mas Enam and another merchant
ship to Djibouti, Soma­lia.

KD Mahawangsa commanding officer Kapt
Khalid Jaafar said the container vessel had fallen an hour behind due to the
mechanical failure. The vessel’s crew then radioed in to say that eight skiffs
were approaching the vessel.

“I decided to send the Super Lynx team (to
watch over the vessel) while we make our way back to the vessel,” Kapt Khalid
said.

He said it was an anxious moment for him and his crew.

The
KD Mahawangsa returned to base here on Dec 17 and was replaced by the KD Sri
Inderasakti.

A filepic of the warship escorting the MISC trade vessel to its
destination.

Our navy has been escorting our ships in the dangerous waters of Somalia ever since some Malaysian ships were taken ransom. It used to be, pirates just boarded a ship, killed everyone on board and sailed away with the loot. Today, a ransom fetches a higher price.

The military commanders from the joint patrol team would have probably considered sending in commandos to rescue their ships already. The French send in commandos to take down some pirates after paying of the ransom for a french boat.

Even the Chinese are sending their warships to the African coasts to patrol. This would be their first major overseas naval mission ever since Admiral Cheng Ho sailed with his fleet to Africa almost 600 years ago.

Almost all the great nations of the world stated out as a trading maritime empire. Malacca was famous for their Orang Laut, the sea people who protected the trade routes. They were pirates by trade but the Sultan got them to 'protect' the routes for the state.

Cheng Ho sailed to south east asia and even battled pirates and attacked their bases. He even brought back the pirate commanders all the way to China to execute them. I think that's the way it should be done.

In a movie world, SAS and Delta force commandos would be swimming into the pirate's base to plan explosives around the town. Another team of commandos will be boarding all the ransomed boats to take out the kidnapppers on board. The lead commando will engage in a hand to hand fight with the pirate commander. As the alarm is alerted, the explosives go off creating a distraction for the commandos to sail away all the ransomed boat.

In the real world, the commandos black hawk helicopter will be shot down over the pirate's town and massacred. All the town's inhabitants including women and children will get blown up in an air strike; all the hostages will be executed by the kidnappers and the captured oil tankers will sink and leak oil all over the african coasts killing all sea life. Hrmm... yeah, I think this would make for a more realistic movie.

List of Israeli companies to boycott

Before the Malaysians were actually calling for a boycott over the Israeli invasion of Gaza, I surfed the net to find out if anyone was boycotting Israeli products. I had remembered there was one called worldwide even during before the invasion of Lebanon.

My google search led me to this website http://www.inminds.com/. They actually have an extensive list of companies that supported Israeli that they say should be boycotted here.

Below is a duplication of the list of companies with the brands next to them:

AOL Time Warner Time Life
magazine, CNN, ICQ
Apax
Partners Jonny Rockets, Sunglass Hut.
Arsenal Football Club
Coca-Cola Fruitopia, Fanta, Kia Orange, Lilt, Sprite, Sunkist..
Caterpillar
Danone HP foods, Evian,
Volvic, Jacob
Delta
Galil Hema, Barbie, Carrefour, Auchan, Tchibo, Victoria's Secret, GAP,
Banana Republic, Structure, J-Crew, JC Penny, Pryca, Lindex, DIM, DKNY, Ralph
Lauren, Playtex, cK, Hugo Boss, M&S
Disney
Emblaze
Estée Lauder Aramis,
Clinique, DKNY, Prescriptives, Origins, MAC, La Mer, Bobbi Brown, Tommy
Hilfiger, Jane, Donna Karan, Aveda, Stila, Jo Malone, Bumble & Bumble, Kate
Spade
Home Depot Villager's Hardware, Georgia Lighting, Apex Supply, EXPO Design
Centres
IBM
Intel
Johnson &
Johnson
Kimberly-Clark Kleenex, Kotex, Huggies, Andrex
Lewis Trust Group
River Island, Isrotel hotels, Britannia Pacific
The Limited Inc Express
stores, Lerner New York, Structure, New York & Company, Mast Industries,
Intimate Brands, Victoria's Secret, Bath & Body Works, White Barn Candle
Company, Henri Bendel
L'Oreal Giorgio Armani,
Redken 5th Avenue, Lancome Paris, Vichy, Cacharel, La Roche-Posay, Garnier,
Biotherm, Helena Rubinstein, Maybelline, Ralph Lauren, Carson
Marks & Spencer M&S, St.Michaels
McDonald's
Motorola
Nestle Nescafé, Perrier,
Vittel, Pure Life, Carnation, Libby's, Milkmaid, Nesquik, Maggi, Buitoni, Cross
& Blackwell, KitKat, Milkybar, Quality Street, Smarties, After Eight, Aero,
Polo, Lion, Felix cat food, L'Oréal
News Corporation TV: Fox, Sky, Star, Phoenix, Granada, CNBC. UK newspapers: Standard
Newspaper, News of the World, The Sun, The Times. Australian Newspapers: The
Telegraph , Gold Coast Bulletin, Herald Sun, Independent, Sunday Mail. US
newspapers: New York Post. Publishers: Harper Collins Ragan, Zondervan, National
Geographical. Nursery World, Rawkus, NDS, Mushroom Records, ChinaByte.com,
Festival Records
Nokia
Revlon New
World Entertainment, Forbes
Sara Lee Hanes, Playtex,
Champion, Leggs, Douwe Egberts, Bryan, DIM, Ambi Pur, Bali, Superior Coffee,
Just My Size, Kiwi, Maison Cafe, Nur die, Pilao, Lovable, Outer Banks,
Wonderbra, Sanex, Pickwick, Gossard, Body Mist, Brylcreem, Aqua Velva,
Radox
Siemens
Selfridges
Starbucks Seattle
Coffee, Pasqua, Hear Music, Tazo
Timberland

Just roughly going through the list, I don't think I purchase many things from those companies anyway. I didn't drink any of Coca-cola's product (including their juicest) in a few months already, same goes for any fast food chains like McDonalds.

I think the only thing on the list I've bought lately was Maggi Mee and Milo from Nestle.

Hrmmm, I guess the Intel Core 2 Duo processor in my notebook I bought recently counts as a purchase from a company that supports Israel. The way I see it, there are only two choices, Intel or AMD. My processor is most likely made in Malaysia. Anyway, Intel rocks and AMD isn't as great as they used to be. I can't help it. The Israeli's probably know that too.

I used to use a Nokia and a Motorola phone, now it's an Iphone. Good think I don't see Apple on the list. Even the Israeli's are smart enough to run on a PC hehehe.

Under Sara Lee, there's Ambi Pur. Okay, I admit I just bought a car freshener for my car. I'll try not to buy anymore Ambi Pur.

I looked up the reason why they're calling for a boycott of Carrefour. Turns out an Israeli company Delta Galil supplies women undies and socks to them. Damn, I thought all of Carrefour's textile product in Malaysia comes from asian third world country like China or India. I just might have to take a peek at Carrefour's socks one day and see where it's made at. Taking a peek at their women's undies section is too wierd, even if it's academic interest.

I do wear a Timberland watch but it was a birthday gift long ago so I didn't actually purchase it.

Actually, now that I think about it, most of the brands in this list I don't think I'm planning to buy anything from them in the immediate future anyway. At least they're not calling for a boycott of Burger King. Burger King beats McD anytime with their juicy burgers... mmm.

Okay, I won't buy Milo and Maggi products for the mean time. Those guys at Nestle must be really feeling the pinch. Well, serves them right for raising the prices of the their product when the government raised the fuel price last year. Now it's payback time.

Last night I was watching the news and Vincent Tan from Berjaya said that most of the companies that are on the boycott list in Malaysia are also owned by Malaysians. He said, for instance, the Starbucks brand in Malaysia is owned by him. What he meant was, the Starbucks franchise in Malaysia was brought in my Berjaya.

Originally I was on the fence about boycotting Starbucks just because they're American but after Vincent Tan said he owned the brand in Malaysia, now I positively think I won't want to buy anything from Starbucks. Not that I bought anything from them in a year or so.

Talking about all these boycott, I wonder if there are a list of companies we can actually support. I wonder if there are any companies that are actually sending aid to Palestine or actually calling for an end of the Gaza occupation. So far there are only NGO's we can support. I wonder if the Palestinians actually export anything at all to Malaysia besides us hosting their students here.

Their economy must be so bad they don't have anything to speak of to export. The Malaysian government should consider strongly sending a trade mission over there to see how we can help their economy grow. Once there is economic growth, more jobs will be created.

Shalom!

I just noticed that there was 3 Israeli visitors to this blog since August. Now I wonder who they were. Hrmmm... now would they be interested to visit this blog?

Alam Melayu

I was reading a colleague's blog about the boycott of American products that some NGO's are calling a boycott for. As the blog was in Malay, I wrote the below comments:

Senarai barangan wajib di boikot ini tidak seimbang dan hanya menyenaraikan
jenama-jenama terbesar. Kenapa jenama seperti Coca-Cola di boikot dan bukan
Pepsi? Kenapa McDonalds dan bukan Burger King?

Adakah kejayaan
'branding' jenama-jenama ini terlalu 'american' sehingga selintas pandang, terus
disenaraikan untuk diboikot?

Tidakkah kita terfikir mengenai 1700
pekerja di Coca-Cola F&N Malaysia Sdn Bhd? 60% daripada pekerja mereka are
pekerja Islam.

Bagaimana dengan pelabur-pelabur dalam dalam syarikat
ini? KWSP juga melaburkan duit simpanan kita di dalam syarikat ini.

Kebanyakkan daripada jenama ini dibawa ke Malaysia oleh seorang rakan
kongsi rakyat Malaysia.

Akhirnya, rakyat Malaysia yang akan lebih 'sakit' daripada semua boikot ini. Saya tidak menulis ini untuk protes boikot ini, hanya untuk menyeru pembaca untuk fikir semula senarai barangan yang ingin di boikot.

Tun Dr. Mahathir sudah pun berkata, kita harus boikot mata wang Amerika. Dengan tindakan ini, mata wang mereka akan turun nilai.

Bagaimana ini boleh dicapai? Kalau satu dunia boleh berhenti menggunakan
mata wang ini sebagai mata wang perdanganan antarabangsa, ini boleh dicapai.

Yes, I do write in and speak Bahasa Malaysia. I would admit, my spoken Bahasa Malaysia is much better than my writing.

Today, I had the most interesting conversation with another colleague. She asked my comment what is the different between gaya dan style. I said, gaya was the malay translation for style. She said she was planning to do some slides and they had words like kontemporari and tips. I told her she should use terkini and petua instead as those would be a better word as the ones she used although was correct, it was borrowed English words.

Another Malay colleague walked up and he gave the exact same comments. I laughed and said to her, "don't just take it from me because I'm Chinese, even a Malay just told you the same thing!". Right after that, she immediately walked of to refer to our boss if she could change the slides.

Anyway, back to the issue of the boycott. I think Tun had something good going on there about boycotting the US dollar. Currently, crude oil and even palm oil is traded internationally in dollars. If Malaysia actually made it a law that anyone who wanted to buy our palm oil or crude oil has to pay us in european currencies, that will create a ripple effect.

As it is, we buy more American things than the Americans buy our Malaysian product. Just look at our exchange rate. What isn't stopping some redneck American from starting a boycott Malaysian product campaign? Think about it.

Rent someone

I like reading the BBC website, they just have really wierd feature stories. I love their stories from Japan. The Japanese just do the darnest things and they actually have a working economy around all these wierd stuff such as this article below:

Rent-a-friend in Japan
In Japan, now back in recession, the economic
situation has taken a sharp turn for the worse in recent months. But the
Japanese still like to use their money to have fun, as Duncan Bartlett has been
finding out.
Lola - or Rora - to give her a slightly more Japanese
pronounciation - is a beauty and she knows it.
Customers pay by the hour for
her company. Usually they just want to stroke her, but as a special treat for
favoured clients, she will lie back in a chair, close her eyes and pose for
photographs.
Lola is a Persian cat who works at the Ja La La Cafe in Tokyo's
bustling Akihabara district. It is one of a growing number of Cat Cafes in the
city which provide visitors with short but intimate encounters with professional
pets.
When I called, there were 12 felines and seven customers, mostly
single men.
One man, in his early 30s, was attempting to bond with an
Oriental Longhair by means of a rubber mouse.
Yutsuke, who speaks with a
lisp, is normally rather shy with people. He longs for a cat of his own but
frequent business trips make that difficult. Besides, he lives alone, so the Ja
La La is his solution to the problem.
The right pet
It costs about £8
($10) an hour to spend time in a Cat Cafe.
If felines do not appeal, other
establishments will rent you a rabbit, a ferret or even a beetle.
There are
more than 150 companies in Tokyo which are licensed to hire out animals of
various kinds and although beetles may be cheap, dogs much more popular.
First you pay a deposit and a hire fee. Then you are issued with a leash,
some tissues and a plastic bag and given some advice on how to handle your new
friend.
Kaori is a pretty waitress who regularly spends her Sunday
afternoons with a Labrador. They go for a walk in the park if the weather is
fine, or if it is wet they just snuggle up in front of the TV in her apartment.
"When I look into his eyes, I think he's my dog," Kaori told me. "But when I
take him back to the shop, he runs away from me and starts wagging his tail when
he sees the next customer. That's when I know he's only a rental dog."
Every
need considered
Of course, it is not only animals whose loyalties can be
decided by money, as people who work in Japan's vast entertainment business will
testify.
The industry offers an enormous variety of opportunities to
exchange money for company.
Very popular at the moment is the Campus Cafe,
where men go to socialise with female university students. It is cheaper than
the upscale hostess clubs in which businessmen and politicians drink whisky with
women in kimonos, although that is a business which is in crisis because of the
recession.
Only a small proportion of the trade involves sex. Most hostesses
are flatterers not prostitutes and customers come to find comfort in their
words, not in their arms.
One specialist agency is known as Hagemashi Tai,
which translates as I Want To Cheer Up Limited. It rents relatives.
Actors
are despatched to play the part of distant relations at weddings and funerals.
For an extra fee, they will even give a speech.
But the firm's services do
not stop there. It can also provide temporary husbands to single mothers who
want them.
The website says the "dad" will help the children with their
homework. He will sort out problems with the neighbours.
He will take the
kids to a barbeque or to a park. He could also appear at the daunting interview
with a nursery school head teacher which parents are required to endure in order
to persuade the principal to give their child a good start in life.
Cry for
help
There is a service for women who are about to wed too. Apparently, they
can practice for married life with a hired husband, although whether this
involves seduction or sock washing is not exactly clear.
And if things are
not working out with a real husband, a woman considering a divorce may choose to
hire a "mother" in order to discuss her marital anxieties.
Mr M.O. from
Shizuoka near Mount Fuji called upon the services of I Want To Cheer Up Ltd
because he needed a father.
Mr M.O. has been blind since birth and had a
number of concerns that he felt he could not speak to others about.
"I kept
it all inside and couldn't deal with the criticisms that had been directed at me
by my parents and teachers," he testified.
After some discussion, the
company sent an older man to have dinner with him. "Usually I can't open up when
I meet someone for the first time but on that occasion, I felt I was really
talking with a normal father. I'll use the service again," he said.
Loneliness is a problem faced by many people on these crowded islands. But
the Japanese are prone to believe that, in the right circumstances, money can
turn a stranger into a friend... at least for a couple of hours.

Now I wonder if they have a rent an enemy so I can practice hating someone. I need practice confronting people I don't like.

Chillies and evolution

Just the other day I was watching my wife eat. As usual, she always has a lot of cili padi mixed in with her food. Saying that she can eat spicy food is an under statement. She even eats maggi mee with cili padi.

As I was watching her eat all that chillies I was wondering about evolution. Plants have fruits to distribute their seeds. Animals eat it then shit it out. Normally, fruits will be sweet or something an animal would want to eat. Chillies however are different, they're spicy and repel animals. The only animal that eats them are birds.

So I started to search around the internet for answer and I found it on the BBC website in this article below:

Chillies: The Burning Question Scientists in the United States have
discovered the reason why chillies are so hot. They say that the chilli plant
repels animals, which will not spread the seeds, whilst birds, which ensure
effective dispersal, are not put off.

But if birds eat chillies and mammals don’t - why do we like them? Science
In Action investigates.

Plant Manipulation

Many plants have ripe, fleshy, coloured fruit in order to attract animals that will eat them and then disperse their seeds in droppings. However, the chilli plant has developed another way of ensuring its
seeds are spread far and wide.

What raises the roof of your mouth when you eat a chilli is a substance
called capsaicin. This stimulates the areas of the skin and tongue that normally
sense intense heat and pain, falsely telling the brain that the area affected is
burning. New research carried out by scientists in Arizona, has discovered that
this characteristic peppery taste repels certain animals – which are no good at
dispersing the seeds.

Digestion And Dispersal

To find out what happens in the wild the scientists observed the eating
habits of the local animals living around a group of wild-growing chillies in
Arizona. They found that desert mice and rats avoided spicy chillies, but birds
fed almost exclusively on the plants.

The researchers also noted that when birds ate the chillies, many seeds
germinated, but there was no germination after mice had eaten the chilli seeds.
This is thought to be because seeds pass through a birds’ digestive systems very
quickly and come out unharmed, whereas in mice, rats and other mammals, the
seeds don’t make it out in one piece as they are broken down by the acidic
juices during digestion.

The researchers suggest that chilli plants have evolved to produce
capsaicin as a repellent for animals, which will ensure their future survival,
whilst still allowing birds to eat their seeds.Human TasteSkilful play by the
chilli, but if birds eat chillies and mammals don’t - why do humans like the hot
stuff? According to Paul Sherman from Cornell University in New York, people may have initially eaten spices because they tasted good, but they also recognised
their health giving properties. He explains:

‘There is tremendous evidence that spices are anti-microbial. Of 30
commonly used spices, at least half of them kill or inhibit 75% of the bacteria
they have been tested on.’

‘Certain ones, garlic, onion, allspice and oregano kill or inhibit
everything that they have been tested on in the laboratory.’Sherman reached his
conclusion after he had studied a range of recipes from different parts of the
world. In particular he wanted to see whether different amount of chillies and
other spices are used in meat as opposed to vegetable dishes. The idea being
that if humans use spices to inhibit or kill food born pathogens, more would be
needed to perform the same job in a meat product than a vegetable product.
Sherman details his findings:

‘We went back to all our cook books and looked at the 2,900 vegetable
recipes and found that in 36 out of 36 countries worldwide, spices are used less
frequently in vegetable recipes. This was across the board in every single
country.’

Luckily for those of us with delicate palates, the decision to add a pinch
or spoonful of chilli powder to our dishes is also determined by another product
of evolution - free will.

So there you have it, Chillies is good for their anti-bacterial properties. I however have a different theory. I think people who like to eat chillies like pain... either that, or they have the same tastebuds as birds. Anyway, if I ever do eat chillies now I always end up shitting it out as soon as possible. It goes into the toilet bowl and straight into the sewers. No chance of the seeds surviving there.

I can just imagine the first humans who tried eating chilli sitting around a camp fire in the evening cooking their dinner having this conversation:

caveman 1: this sabertooth tiger you're roasting over the fire taste kind of dull.
caveman 2: (reaches over and plucks a few chillies from a nearby tree) here, try rubbing some of this berries and rub it into the meat.
caveman 1: what kind of red berries are these? Smells funny (rubs in the 'berries' into the meat).
caveman 2: Give it a bite and try it.
caveman 1: No way, why I always have to try the new food? It was my turn the last time we had to eat those strange mushrooms. I had strange dreams for a week!
caveman 2: Okay, okay... past it over (takes a bite) oh shit!
caveman 1: what, it taste like shit? reminds me of the time you made me try that lump we found
caveman 2: No! My mouth's burning... this berry it's... it's hot!
caveman 1: That good eh? (takes a bite and chokes)
caveman 2: (shakes unconscious caveman 1) Dude? Dude, you okay? I meant hot as in my mouth's burning, not hot as in great

Well, I didn't say the first attempt when well. I assume a few of our early ancestors probably died trying dangerous food like poisonous toads and eating skunk ass.

Boycott?

I saw this in The Star Online today:

Malaysian Muslim eateries plan boycott of American goods
KUALA LUMPUR:
More than 2,000 Muslim restaurants in Malaysia will remove Coca-Cola from their
menus as part of a boycott of American products in protest against Israel's
bombardment of Gaza, officials said Wednesday.
American companies are being
targeted because of the US Government's support of Israel, which is carrying out
a military offensive on Gaza that is says is aimed at stopping rocket attacks
from the Hamas-controlled territory.
The nationwide boycott will be launched
Friday by several Muslim groups after they seek God's blessings at Friday
prayers, said Ma'mor Osman, secretary-general of the Malaysian Muslim Consumers
Association which is leading the campaign.
In addition to Coca-Cola, he said
they have identified some 100 other products ranging from food to beauty and
clothing such as Starbucks, Colgate, McDonald's and Maybelline.
Since the
Israeli offensive began, nearly 600 Palestinians, about half of them civilians,
have been killed and at least 2,500 people injured, according to UN and
Palestinian officials. Eleven Israelis have also been killed.
Muslims in
Malaysia and worldwide have held demonstrations against the Israeli action but
Ma'mor said such protests are futile.
"A boycott is the best way for us to
protest Zionist cruelty against the Palestinian people as consumers can weaken
the economy of countries like Israel and its ally, the United States," he
said.
"We urge everybody who loves peace and is against war to support our
campaign. We must send a clear signal to Israel to stop the assaults in Gaza,"
he said.
Some 2,600 restaurants under the Association of Muslim Restaurant
Operators will stop selling Coca-Cola from Friday, he added.
The move came
after former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, a strident critic of Israel, last
week urged consumers and governments to boycott American products and the US
dollar.
Israel sent troops and tanks into Hamas-controlled Gaza on Saturday
after a weeklong aerial bombardment, sparking outrage among Muslims
worldwide.
Malaysia's government, which has no diplomatic ties with Israel,
has denounced Israel's ground offensive as "an act of total war" which cannot be
tolerated.
The United States has also been criticized for blocking approval
of a UN Security Council statement calling for an immediate cease-fire between
Israel and Hamas. -- AP

Now, this is not the first time a Malay organization has called for a boycott such as this. I still remember them calling for a boycott of Coca-Cola. After all that, I remember talking to a branding expert and he said that was a demonstration of the power of one's brand. Coca-Cola has always been identified as an all American brand, one of the essence of USA. Now, how come no one ever boycotts Pepsi or even Burger King instead of McDonalds only?

Today, I walked into my office and on the wall, someone has pasted a list of brands they should boycott. Among the list was Intel and I scanned the list, there was no AMD on it. A group of my colleagues were also crowded around saying how we should all boycott American products. I then said very loudly to all of them maybe you should all throw away your HP and Compaq notebooks, me I bought a Taiwanese brand.

The truth is, most of the brands (especially the fast moving consumer goods) are intertwined with our economy. Take for example Coca-Cola. In Malaysia it's produced by F&N Coca-Cola Malaysia Sdn Bhd. Most of their employees here are Malaysians. As for their minority shareholders, the last time I checked it was our own Employees Provident Fund (EPF). If their sales take a huge dive, there will be major layoffs and in this bad economic times we don't need anymore layoffs. EPF will also post lower returns and in the end, this boycott will probably hurt us more than it will hurt Coca-Cola.

I remember when there was a call to boycott Dutch products and Dutch Lady held a press conference begging consumers not to boycott their products saying exactly almost the same thing. The majority shareholders are Malaysians and so are their employees.

My take on this is, if I really want to boycott American products there are a few criterias the product has to meet first:

1. Is the product solely manufactured in USA? My Iphone is made in China. I love China, and I don't want those poor Chinese factory workers to loose their jobs. If it's products that are solely manufactured in USA then okay, I won't buy their products anymore. As for Intel and AMD, their processors are made in Penang and China now. I'll still buy it (Intel, not AMD because Intel Core 2 Duo rocks!)

2. Is the company opposed to the war. For all I know, Bill Gates is opposing the war and is actively campaigning to end the bombings. Anyway, a lot of people use pirated Microsoft products so it doesn't matter.

3. Does the company have direct relations with Israel? I remember a news report saying that our police has contracted Israeli nationals to provide their computer systems. Boycott the police then? I know ICQ used to be an Israeli company. Now that they're with AOL I'm not sure if they still have ties with them.

Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohammad had the best idea, boycott the US Dollar. It's a simple idea, stop using the US dollar as an international currency. We buy and sell crude oil; palm oil all in dollar. I wonder if its possible for Petronas to say from now on, you want to buy our oil, we would quote you in Ringgit. Don't follow the international market price in dollars anymore.

China has one of the largest foreign reserves in the world and most of the foreign currency held is the Dollar. Now what would happen if China just started selling their Dollar? Think about it. The value of the dollar will drop, Americans will have a hard time buying things. Their defence contractor would jack up their price and the American congress would seriously have to consider if they want to raise their defence budget or save their economy.

While we're on their topic, I also think the media is biased. How come no one protested when Hamas was launching home made rockets into Israel? Was that okay to randomly shoot rockets at them? If Hamas didn't provoke the Israeli's I don't think they would want to risk their lives going into Gaza too.

There won't be any easy resolution to this conflict. This conflict will go on and on if both sides decides that the only resolution is to destroy each other. Palestinian children who are being bombed today will grow up holding a grudge against Israeli's. Israeli children who grow up in fear of having to join their army and marching into Gaza would hate the Palestinians and think its best to kill all the Palestinians before they cause future problems.

If only we could take away all their childen from them and form an utopia. Palestinian and Israeli children would be brought up as brothers and sister not known the resentment for each other that their parents have. This new generation once they reach adulthood, can then be brought back to their homeland. From then on the new generation won't have anymore hate in them. Of course, all these is just wishful thinking.

Today, I asked my colleague why these Palestinians want to die for a job who has forgotten about them? He told me a story about the guy who was stuck on his roof during a flood.

There was a man sitting on his roof as there was a huge flood. The water was rising slowly. A small motorboat came by to rescue him and he told the boatman "thats okay, God will save me!". Awhile later, another boat came to rescue him and he said the same thing "Don't worry about me, God will save me!". A third boat came and he still chased away the boat. Finally the water when all the way up and the man drowned. When he reached heaven, he was quite pissed and he asked God why didn't God rescue him. God replied "I tried! I send 3 boats to rescue you but you kept chasing them away!".

I smiled as I have heard this one before. So I told my colleague, maybe God is trying to tell the Palestinian something. Maybe they shouldn't stay there anymore or they shouldn't launch rockets at Israel. They should probably move out of the place and scatter. If they don't want to do that, then they should find a non-violent way to live harmoniously with the Israelis. Stop smuggling weapons in Gaza through Egypt and making home made rockets. The Israelis should also encourage economic ties with the Palestinians. People with jobs won't have time to make home made rockets. Those who have something to loose won't want to treaten their jobs.

The Israelis should also realize you have to use a carrot and stick approach. If you march into Gaza and kick the shit out of the Palestinians, that won't stop the next wave of rocket attacks. If you drop bombs on children and kill civilians, that will just make them more angry. This isn't the first time they marched into Gaza to flatten them. Look at what good that did. They just made more Palestians pissed at them.

Stop dropping bombs on them!
Give them hope, not bombs.
Give them jobs, not death!

The Age of Aquarius

I've been reading about the Israeli invasion of Gaza. Reading about wars some how or another always makes me think of this song, Aquarius/Let The Sunshine in by The Fifth Dimension. I know it's wierd. I think it's because the first time I heard the song was in the movie Forrest Gump. It was partly a war movie and also a movie about changes going on in the 70's.




When ever I think of strive, I think of the Age of Aquarius. According to Wikipedia, "The Age of Aquarius is one of the twelve astrological ages. Each astrological age is approximately 2,150 years long, on average, but there are various methods that can make ages much longer and shorter depending upon the technique used."


So one of those ages last a very long time! So what's so special about the Age of Aquarius?

"Ages are believed by some astrologers to affect mankind while other astrologers believe the ages correlate to the rise and fall of mighty civilizations and cultural tendencies. Aquarius traditionally "rules" electricity, computers, flight, democracy, freedom, humanitarianism, idealists, modernization, rebels and rebellions, mental diseases, nervous disorders, and astrology. Other keywords and ideas believed associated with Aquarius are nonconformity, philanthropy, veracity, perseverence, mankind and irresolution. The appearance or elevation in status of many of these Aquarian developments over the last few centuries is considered by many astrologers to indicate the proximity of the Aquarian age. There is no uniform agreement about the relationship of these recent Aquarian developments and the Age of Aquarius."

Most astrologers couldn't agree if we are actually in the Age of Aquarius but some say we've already in it. So look around us and you decide if we're already in it.

As for the song itself, it's a medley of two songs from the musical Hair put together. It was released in 1969 and was one of Fifth Dimension's biggest hits.

I just love music from the 70's. Music then was just full of touchy-feely emotions. Anyway, here's another video of Fifth Dimension performing all their hits.

Fake Thundercats trailer

Oh man, when I saw this I laughed so hard. It's basically a fake trailer for Thundercats. it's a mashup of various movies put together with some CGI added to it. It stars Brad Pitt as Lionel and it has Garfield in it too. Hillarious!

People still use Friendster?

I was surfing the news and I came across this article:

Newscaster and actress among 26 busted at sex partyBy RASHITHA A. HAMID and M. KUMAR
KUALA LUMPUR: A noted female newscaster and an actress were among 26 people caught in a sex party at a hotel in Jalan P. Ramlee here early yesterday morning.
The women also tested positive for drugs, sources said.
As of 10pm yesterday, they were still being detained at the police headquarters along with the others. Their ages range from 18 to 31.
Apparently, the 22-year-old newscaster is engaged and is due to be married next week. She has been reading news for a private television station for about a year.
The 25-year-old actress has apparently played a role in a movie made by a famous director.
Sources said the duo had earlier partied away at a 2009 countdown celebration in Mont Kiara.
Later, along with some other acquaintances, they proceeded to the four-star hotel to attend the sexual escapade.
Sources said a team of police from the city headquarters busted the private sex party some 30 minutes after it began at about 3am.
“When police arrived, many of the party goers were already high on drugs.
“There were also three couples lying on beds, but they were clothed,” added the sources.
Police found various types of drugs including ketamine, cocaine and syabu in the 11th floor room.
Beer and other liquor bottles were also lying everywhere.
Police believe the drug supplier was a 20-year-old male student from a private college.
Sources said police believe the party-goers knew one another via Friendster.
It was also through the online social network that the alleged sex party was organised.
City CID chief Senior Asst Comm (II) Ku Chin Wah confirmed the arrests.

I think what was most surprising about the article was that they got together through Friendster. I still maintain my Friendster account but I hardly used it. The only few times I log in to delete spam messages. Everyone uses facebook these days. I didn't know Friendster was still active in Malaysia.

Anyway, the news just broke out today so in a few days time people will probably know who the 'newscaster' and 'actress' are. I hope they have a good excuse. Personally, I think if you want to do party go ahead, just don't get caught. Ultimate embarassment.